The Team and Partners
We work with a variety of partners, including community groups, schools and multi-disciplinary academics and wider professionals. Here is a list of our core team and some of the people we have worked with.
Core Team
Chris Harrison is an astronomer at Newcastle University in the UK, where he primarily studies active galaxies. He is interested in making astronomy more engaging and accessible, which led to him co-ordinating the Audio Universe project.
James Trayford is an astronomer at the University of Portsmouth in the UK and is primarily interested in galaxy evolution. He is the lead developer of the STRAUSS code, which forms the basis of Audio Universe, investigating sonification applications for astronomy research and outreach.
Rose Shepherd is a PhD student, who is using the STRAUSS code to explore new methods to represent galaxy spectra (1D and 3D) and a variety of light curves. The goals are to find alternatives to visual inspection, which can be very challenging with large and complex datasets, as well as find new methods to communicate astronomical phenomena.
Nicolas Bonne is an astronomer and outreach officer at the University of Portsmouth. He uses his experience with having a vision impairment to inspire young people who are blind or vision impaired to pursue science. He leads the Tactile Universe project, and acts as a consultant for Audio Universe.
Anita Zanella is an astronomer working at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Padova, Italy, primarily interested in how stars are formed in distant galaxies. She is very active in promoting astronomy to the general public and has co-ordinated the work of Audio Universe in Italy.
Other Contributors
Rachel Lambert is a qualified teacher of vision impaired children and young people. She has acted as consultant throughout, contributing her experience and expertise in delivering accessible education.
Vicky Fawcett is a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University who has organised and has delivered Audio Universe educational activities in schools and museums. She is leading the a new exhibition, and related educational workshops, about telescopes and Astronomy in North East England. This takes some of the accessibility features and ideas from Audio Universe.
Leigh Harrison is a composer and retired music teacher. He brings a musician's perspective to the sonification process as well as his decades of experience working with young people.
Patrick O'Neill is a PhD student in astronomy at Newcastle University. His research focuses mainly on pulsars. He has contributed to developing the educational multi-sensory workshops.
Enrique Pérez Montero is an astronomer based at the Instituto de Astrofiscia de Andalucia in Spain. He uses his experience as a blind scientist to encourage other people who are blind or vision impaired to pursue science. He has co-ordinated the Spanish version of Audio Universe: Tour of the Solar System.
Sean Dougherty was a Masters student in astronomy at Newcastle University. His research focuses mainly on active galaxies. He designed and created the Audio Universe website.
Aishwarya Girdhar was a PhD student student at Newcastle University and Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich. She was the education and outreach lead for Audio Universe 2022-2023. She now works at LMU, researching physics education.
Community Partners
At Audio Universe we are very keen to engage with members of the community and experts from a wide range of domains, including education and communication.
We have a partnership with the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle. We have been developing resources alongside them and a educational program.
We have been working the the VIEWS group Newcastle. Who have provided valuable input on the resources that we have been developing. This is all on a volunteer basis. They are a group supporting visually impaired people to visit their full potential.
We are delighted to be working alongside specialist teachers of visually impaired children and young people, including those from Newcastle Children's Vision Team and Sunnyside Academy. We have also presented to wider community groups of blind and visually impaired people including: MySight Nottingham and the Royal National Institute of the Blind (UK).